girl let me check

Chapter 420: Dark Clouds Gathering

Fang Weihan was questioned by Xiao Jin for a long time. The girl opposite heard him say such a strange sentence and thought that he had suffered some injustice. Xiao Jin was so anxious that she even said that she would run to Wuling to find him.

He used all kinds of persuasion, even deception, to finally make Xiao Jin give up the idea.

After bidding farewell to Fang Xun, Fang Weihan returned to the navy ship and began to deal with the backlog of official business during this period.

Since the cooperation conditions have been reached with the Zoroastrianism, the evil sect banditry in Jingzhou will probably be solved soon. Before the order to return to the capital was issued by Changming, Fang Weihan and the Eastern Palace Guards had a short break. It was a good opportunity to train tactics with the new equipment.

Ten days passed in a flash, and Fang Weihan found Pei Jie again.

After Fang Weihan greeted Pei Jie, he smiled and asked, "How's the progress?"

"Everything goes well." Pei Jie smiled with relief and handed the musket in his hand to Fang Weihan.

Fang Weihan took the musket from his hand and keenly noticed that this thing was very different from the previous one.

First of all, the weight was reduced by nearly half, probably because there was no need to use heavy Tianfang copper. And then Wei Han noticed that the primer chamber had been greatly reduced from its original ellipsoid shape to the size of a fingernail.

"Brother Fang, this is the material I improved to replace the spiritual fire powder, the fire pill." Pei Jie took out a cloth bag, which contained dozens of small brown balls.

"Spirit stones are used as the base, mixed with clear and turbid gases, and separated by fire patterns to meet storage needs under normal conditions." Pei Jie used his source power to grab a fire ball and let it float in the air.

"Once the fireball encounters a strong impact, the turbid air and blood energy in it will merge and dissolve, releasing a large amount of energy, pushing the projectile out of the chamber at a high speed."

The fire ball exploded in mid-air, and the hot airflow stirred up dust all over the ground.

"Has the power decreased?" Fang Weihan asked.

"Not only has it not become smaller, but it has become even more powerful." Pei Jie laughed, "The efficiency of using fire balls as primers is even stronger than that of spiritual fire powder. The original solid projectiles could penetrate a two-inch rammed earth wall, but now after replacing them with fire balls, they can even reach three inches at close range."

"Three inches?" Fang Weihan was shocked, feeling extremely surprised.

The defensive capability of a two-inch solid earth wall is already close to that of heavy plate armor. If it is three inches... With the current armor-making technology of the Great Zhou, no set of armor can withstand the frontal bombardment of the Flowing Fire Gun.

When Mingwu's blood-stained robe had not yet evolved into iron armor, its defensive ability was not as good as that of cast armor. It couldn't even stop heavy armor, let alone a mere blood-stained robe?
"What is the current cost of this thing?" Fang Weihan asked this most critical question.

The previous plan to use spiritual fire powder for the Flowing Fire Gun was rejected due to its high cost, otherwise he would not have gone to so much trouble to reach an agreement with the Zoroastrianism.

"Forty taels of silver." Pei Jie said.

This price was less than half of the original price, which was already much lower than Fang Weihan's psychological expectations.

"Do we still need a fifth-level Mozhe?" Fang Weihan asked.

"No, given the blueprints and molds, this improved version of the Flowing Fire Gun can be made by a skilled blacksmith." Pei Jie said, "I have recently been contacting skilled blacksmiths in Jingzhou. Once the molds are made, we can start mass production."

"Good!" Fang Weihan was overjoyed.

Forty taels of silver per hand, the Eastern Palace Guards led a total of 36,000 soldiers, and a total of 1.44 million taels of silver were needed. Adding the cost of the fire balls and maintenance, the total cost was about 1.5 million taels of silver.

Fang Weihan naturally didn't have that much money, but he could ask for it.

After all these Liuhuo guns are equipped to the Eastern Palace guards, their combat effectiveness will be enhanced to a terrifying level.

Just when Fang Weihan was about to use Mingyue Luhua and Xie Lingwan to ask for money, the messenger came in hurriedly, clasped his fists and said:
"Wei Lieutenant, Chang Ming's messenger has arrived. He brought a handwritten letter from Her Royal Highness the Princess."

Fang Weihan's hand that had taken out the Mingyue Talisman paused, and his brows slowly frowned.

Fang Tang? Why did she write to herself?
He walked down to the cabin, took the gold-embossed red letter from the respectful messenger, and slowly unfolded it.

"From my ninth brother."

Fang Tang's handwriting is smart and small, revealing the elegance of a young girl. But besides the elegance, the end of each stroke is pointed out with the center of the brush, which is sharp and hidden.

As the saying goes, a person's handwriting reflects his or her personality. Fang Tang's handwriting is obviously influenced by her personality to a certain extent.

Fang Tang called his ninth brother back? Fang Weihan was a little surprised.

But what surprised him even more was what happened next. Below the four words of greeting, there was a large blank space without a single word on it.

Fang Weihan thought he was dazzled. He took the envelope and examined it carefully, and finally confirmed that it was indeed a large blank space.

I don’t know what Fang Tang wanted to express by leaving such a space.

After a long blank, Fang Tang started talking about business.

"…The last days of winter are about to pass, and the summer heat in southern Jing is just around the corner. I recently learned that the evil sect's banditry has been quelled, Wuling has been stabilized, and it will only be a month before my ninth brother leads his army to the battle. It is my good fortune to have my ninth brother in the country."

"Now that the matter in Jingzhou is over, do you intend to lead the army back to the capital? If so, I will issue an urgent decree to welcome the triumphant return of the East Palace's army..."

"Look back soon."

Apart from the long blank space, Fang Tang's letter was very brief and only mentioned this one thing.

Fang Weihan closed the letter, looked at the sparkling river in the distance and fell into deep thought.

Fang Tang wanted me to go back, and she used such a negotiating tone, which was probably a signal of goodwill to me. The question now was... did I need to accept her kindness?

After a brief thought, Fang Weihan made a decision:
Accept shit.

From his own personal perspective, Fang Tang didn't even apologize to him. With just such a short sentence, he wanted to write off the previous things? He was not a blind and loyal subject. It was impossible for him to follow her wishes in everything.

Here, and more importantly, the Eastern Palace Guards are currently equipping the Flowing Fire Gun on a large scale. The site and craftsmen have been found, and if they return to Changming, all the previous preparations will be wasted.

The Taikang Rebellion was imminent, and he had to seize every opportunity to improve the strength of his army and not waste precious time on the road.

In any case, he had to wait until the Liuhuo guns were assembled before returning to Beijing.

"When a general is on the battlefield, he is not necessarily subject to the orders of the king." Fang Weihan thought to himself.

……

……

Jizhou, Yecheng.

This luxurious mansion was originally the official residence of the governor of Yecheng, but after Fang Zun personally led the army here, it was immediately donated by the governor to be used as the emperor's temporary palace.

At this moment, Fang Zun was sitting in the pavilion with a chessboard on the stone table in front of him.

The white piece was like a dragon, and the black piece was like a knife. The blade was embedded in the dragon's scales, almost cutting it in two. The huge dragon head twisted in pain, with only a little skin and flesh sticking to each other.

The emperor of the empire stroked the white piece in his hand. Time passed by, but he was still undecided.

"I'm old." He sighed.

Emperors are also human beings, and they also go through the process of growing old. Most of the stupidity in history is just the inevitable result of the decline of judgment in old age.

If the direction of a ship is determined by an elderly person alone, the ship will not be far from sinking.

Fang Zun has not aged to such an extent, but he no longer has the courage and decisiveness he had when he was young.

His hands were stained with too much blood, both good and bad. In order to ascend to the throne, he killed his own father. In order to consolidate the Fang family's imperial power, he sent the soldiers of Changyuan to die.

The power of the Great Zhou is in the hands of a group of people whose surname is not Fang. If he wants to seize power, he can only sacrifice blood.

Time passed quickly, and the faces of countless people appeared clear and blurred in front of his eyes. When he finally arrived at the last door in front of the Golden Terrace, he looked back and saw a pile of dry bones.

The weather in early spring was still chilly. The emperor of the empire sat in the pavilion and shivered.

Fang Zun wrapped his robe tightly around his body when he suddenly heard a sound of air flow. It turned out to be Eunuch Xue who appeared in front of him.

The old eunuch bent down and said respectfully: "Your Majesty, there has been a change in Jizhou City."

"What has changed?"

"The Fanyang Lu Clan announced that the clan leader Lu Tainian's foundation was unstable after he broke through the seventh level, and he has now gone back into seclusion."

Fang Zun sneered: "The people from Shangyuan Wang's family just arrived in Jizhou yesterday, and today Lu Tainian has gone into seclusion on his own. He really is too lazy to even put on a show."

He stared at the endgame in front of him. The black and white characters were densely packed, and there were only a few empty spaces on the board for him to place his pieces. No matter where he placed his pieces, it seemed that he could not change the outcome of the white dragon being cut in two by the black sword.

A cold wind blew past, ruffling the emperor's no longer black hair, revealing a few strands of paleness that could not be concealed.

"What day is today?" Fang Zun asked.

"To answer your Majesty's question," Eunuch Xue bowed and replied, "Today is February 19th."

"February 19th..." Fang Zun muttered to himself.

"Do you know?" he whispered, "the day Changyuan was completed a thousand years ago was also February 19th."

Eunuch Xue bent his waist even lower.

"For a thousand years... For a whole thousand years, Changyuan Fortress has never been breached. There are countless corpses of foreign races buried under its bricks. Even though it has been hacked and chopped all over by sabers, Changyuan is still there."

Fang Zun seemed to be talking to Eunuch Xue, but also seemed to be talking to himself.

"If we talk about the contribution of the royal family of the Great Zhou to the world, the construction of Changyuan may be the most important one."

"Changyuan... People say that without Changyuan to stop the foreigners, there would be no peace and tranquility in the Great Zhou today."

“But that’s only half true.”

Fang Zun stood up and his thin figure fell into the sunset.

"Changyuan... it not only blocks the brutal foreign races outside the Great Wall, but also the disloyal families in the Middle Earth."

He turned around and left step by step, his steps slow and firm. Like the rotation of the sun and the moon, destiny cannot be defied.

Eunuch Xue followed behind him silently. The loyal old eunuch would support all the decisions of the emperor and would never regret it even if he died.

The setting sun shines obliquely, and the shadows of the trees fall on the pavilion. On the lonely chessboard, a white piece quietly falls, and it happens to get stuck in the throat of the dragon, splitting the dragon's head and body in half.

After this boy fell, the one-sided situation just now underwent a strange change.

No matter how the black knife stretched out, it could not completely kill the white dragon. A dead chess piece was revived by a single move!
A lizard cuts off its tail to survive, and a dragon breaks its head to survive.

The emperor of the empire had already made up his mind.

……

……

Tianshan Mountain, Wentian Peak.

The forty-eight-layer armillary sphere rotated at different speeds. The giant sundial needle cast a shadow, covering the vast number of disciples under the celestial sphere.

Ever since Mount Tianshan was closed, all the Linyuan disciples have gathered on the Wentian Peak.

The lines of the Star Shifting Array extend into countless tiny branches, each of which is connected to a closed-eyed disciple. They inject the causal power of their own practice into the array, and the running array directs the star energy to the celestial instrument. These energies eventually converge on the celestial instrument, and the needle tip of the sundial tears through space, and the image of the broken time and space wails.
The movement of the armillary sphere was getting faster and faster, almost reaching a speed that was invisible to the naked eye. The roar resounded throughout the Wentian Peak, and the scorching air waves melted the flying snow.

Zhenren Taixu stood in front of the Tianyi, with his hands hanging down and a blank expression on his face.

The alternating hot and cold wind blew his robe. Behind him, the heads of the eight pavilions of Linyuan stood in a row, all with solemn expressions.

After an unknown amount of time, the roaring noise of Tianyi slowly stopped. Many Linyuan disciples below the stage sat down on the ground as if exhausted, panting, obviously exhausted.

Everyone closed their eyes and listened to the prophetic message from Tianyi.

"The time has come, it's time to return." A pavilion master said in a low voice.

Zhenren Taixu did not respond.

"Yu Chen should be recalled." Another Pavilion Master added upon seeing this.

Master Taixu still did not respond.

He closed his eyes and rested, as if he was unaware of everything around him.

“Pavilion Master…” This time it was the Yu Lu Pavilion Master, Xuan Quan Zhenjun.

Taoist Taixu opened his eyes, lowered his head and said nothing.

After a long while, he said indifferently:

"Recall Yuchen."

"Linyuan Pavilion... has done enough for the world."

After hearing what Master Taixu said, the expressions of the pavilion masters varied.

Some were indignant, some could not bear it, but more people breathed a sigh of relief.

The light of cause and effect flashed across the sky and headed southeast.

……

……

Kuaiji, Dongshan.

Xie Lingwan lazily played with a Liuhuo gun in her hand, her slender index finger pushing the bolt at the tail up and down, as if she had found a new toy to replace Changming Rose.

"Miss, His Royal Highness Prince Guangling hopes that we can provide him with some money." The maid beside her said softly.

"How much does he want?" Xie Lingwan asked.

"One million and a half taels of silver."

"Have Xie Qian take people to withdraw three million taels of silver from the Lujiang treasury, and send the Dajiang navy to escort him. Make sure it is delivered to him within half a month."

"Yes."

The maid took the order and left.

Xie Lingwan put down the Liuhuo gun in her hand and looked back at the huge map hanging on the wall.

"Huainan, Lujiang, Guangling, Pengcheng, Xia Pi..." The girl silently recited several place names that appeared repeatedly on her desk.

Xie Lingwan looked at the map thoughtfully, and from beginning to end, she did not look at any area north of the river.

If someone observes carefully, they will be shocked to find that on this map that Miss Xie usually uses, the location of Changyuan has been marked with a bright cross by someone with a red pen.

"It's February...it's almost time."

The girl's fingers gently stroked the border of Changyuan and the vast mountains and rivers in the north.

"When are you going to start?"

(End of this chapter)